Tuesday, August 17, 2010

It is now the third day of the Games and our team has already written history: Luis Knabl won bronze in the Triathlon competition and thus became the first ever Austrian to win a Youth Olympic medal. However, what is even more enjoyable than Luis' medal is that it revealed the great team spirit our delegation has going on. For instance, a group of ten went to his big race, although we had to get up at 6 in the morning for it and people are always busy with practice and so on. It is really very satisfying to see how all those athletes coming from different sporting backgrounds have been transformed into a unit in what was only a matter of days (if not hours).

Apart from Luis' historic achievements, also the other athletes did quite well: Martina got fifth in women's wrestling, despite her injury. Kira and Ivona qualified for the A-finals today and are now going for a medal. Lara became fifth in her first race and won the second one and is now second overall. Last but not least, Elisa landed a big sensation by qualifying for the women's all-around gymnastics, a deed that has never been achieved in Austrian gymnastics history.

Also off the track, lots of great stuff is going on: Our athletes are heavily engaged in the CEP program, we attended a party thrown by Innsbruck 2012 in downtown Singapore the other day (Tyroler Knödel!!) and we got a marvellous picture presented to us by the pupils who designed the Austria booth in the World Culture Village. So all in all: Good times!

At this point, I would like to thank all our Facebook fans, who are really amazing in the way they support our athletes. So thank you and keep it up! Please also check out the page for pictures of our time here in Singapore.